1st Sunday, 2008

The reason I slept so good last night... it rained almost all night. Had to walk under the umbrella to church this morning. It goes from heavy mist to buckets falling.

Worship service was awesome this morning as we remembered The Body and The Blood: Matthew 26:26-30; I Cor. 11:23-32. Thanks to Audra Robb for choosing such appropriate songs for our Communion Service. We appreciate her willingness to serve as pianist and worship leader. Audra in the red jacket, taken Friday at the olive mill. Around 2:00 this afternoon, the sun tried to break through. So I walked out to see what Bert Case was doing up a ladder. Maybe later, after it stops raining, I can get a picture of his new weather vane. Here at Quail Run, we have RV's and park models. Bert & Sadie live in a park model. Now, Tammy, I know you find nothing out of the ordinary about rain water standing in the street, but remember, this is the desert valley. I had been inside our RV only minutes when the bottom fell out of the clouds. So much for the sun trying to break through. So, it's a rainy day... Don & I played Farkle: Don 1, LaVon 2.

Someone...

Somewhere...

Dreams of your Smile

And while thinking of You

Feels that life is worthwhile

So whenever you're lonley

Remember it's true

Someone...

Somewhere...

Is thinking of You!

Saturday

It's an overcast day, but no rain.

Even an RV has to be cleaned. While I cleaned, Don went to the grocery store.

As I walked back to the laundry room, I couldn't resist taking this picture for Bro. Deyrl. This John Deere is made from painted pop cans. See how much it resembles the picture on Bro. Deyrl's apron below. Bro. Deyrl (& Betty) Kastner was our music director at FBC, Noble, OK. He recently retired after 30 years service to the ministry of music and education. Betty played the piano and organ. We sure love ya'll and wish you would come see us. After all, you are retired. :-).

While we were at the Mesa Market Place yesterday, I bought 6 brightly colored dice. When we got home, I Googled "Farkel Rules" and now we're hooked. Thank you, Tammy.

Don grilled the beautiful pork chops we purchased at the Pork Shop yesterday. We had Darlene and Dave over for dinner. She brought delicious scalloped potatoes and cake. I'm slipping. I should have taken a picture of our meal. It was pretty and tasted soooo good.

After the meal, we quickly cleaned the kitchen and then proceeded to teach Dave & Darlene how to play Farkel. They had never heard of it either. Don actually had the rules in his card case from years ago, but he had forgotten about the game. We have also found a man in the park who makes a nice Pegs & Jokers game, but he wasn't home today.

Queen Creek Olive Mill

It's been a fun and educational day spent with park hosts and good friends, George & Nancy Reid. It's a beautiful day and we've already experienced the best part of our day. It's a regular part of everyday, so I won't repeat it everyday, but I can not refrain from sharing with you just once, how precious and special it is to be blessed with a husband who loves the Lord, loves me and prays with me and for me everyday. What woman would not love hearing her husband thank God everyday "for this beautiful lady by my side?" And I thank God for Don and for giving us this time in our lives to share together as we follow Him. We got up early, got ready, read the Bible & devotional, and prayed together and walked over to the Cantina for doughnuts & coffee to welcome newbies and recognize birthdays and anniversaries. About 30 of us were also gathering to tag along to the Queen Creek Olive Mill... a trip Don has been looking forward to for weeks. He cooks a lot with EVOO and there are a lot of mentions about olives, olive branches, olive groves, etc. in the Bible so never having seen an olive tree, we were looking forward to this outing. We loaded up in The Clydesdale and away we went. Along the way, we saw this traveler stopped on the side of the road. He gave a whole new meaning to "everything but the kitchen sink" as you see, there right on top was everything and kitchen sink. It's upside down and black on the underside so it's hard to see, but trust me, we all saw it and had a good laugh. Without taking more than one wrong turn and less than an hour on the road, we made it to the mill. A simple metal building with a store, processing room and cafe. First stop. LaNae, I took these pictures for you. It was nothing fancy, as you can see, but made a clean statement of simplicity. It just dawned on me that I did not look inside the cabinet. Umm. I must be slipping. Is anyone laughing yet? Gathering to hear the olive oil story. Activities committee member, Robin, and acting tour coordinator in the absence of Bruce & DeAnn. We are also sharing a bottle of Bloody Orange Olive Oil with her. Thanks, Robin. Our tour guide, Kari, gave us a very educational lecture about the olive industry. Snookie did such an awesome job describing the olive products process. (link in the menu on the right). Here's an exerpt from her post: "We learned that oil can have a fruity, peppery, grassy or buttery taste. We also learned that there are six grades of olive oil. Kari, our guide, pointed out that light virgin olive oil is next to last on the list of oils that you want to buy. She went on further to say that a lot of people buy the "light" olive oil thinking it is less in calories or has a lighter taste. This is not the case,,,,its mostly chemicals. She strongly recommended to us that if we have this in our cupboard to throw it out.
Black olives. I thought they grew that way. Also not the case. Black olives are nothing more than bruised, mildewed or in some way less than perfect green olives that are infused with pure oxygen to give it the black color. This way the distributors can sell them and the consumer thinks they are eating something natural and good."
I didn't take very many pictures on the inside, but this one was taken in the processing room. Here it is, an olive tree. Kari said the owner planted these trees three years ago and still no olives. I just know Don was thinking, "that'll preach." The owner rescued about 30 of these trees from someone who had left them in boxes for a long time and she said they were "angry" and wanted to know if any of us were tree huggers. The olives are harvested by hand every year on November 17 with a rake type tool that simply combs the olives off onto a mat under the tree. When the olives are on the trees these long branches hang down like a willow tree and the harvesters easily comb them off without harming them. An olive branch, close up. Lenny & Ginny Dexter enjoy the on site cuisine. Tour guide, Kari, made us drool with her description of The Pork Shop pork chops marinaded in Queen Creek Olive Mill EVOO, so we beat a hot trail down the road to the The Pork Shop (couldn't find a website to link, but someone before blogged nicely), after purchasing some fresh QCOM EVOO. The aroma when we opened the Pork Shop door was just devine. We made a few purchases that we had to stop and get ice to pack them in for our trip home. I also got a pulled pork green chilies burrito for lunch. Yummmmmm. Back in The Clydesdale, we head toward The Mesa Market Place Swap Meet. Now here's a serious flea market and the way I like it... all under roof. It consists of four really, really long buildings, complete with food courts and live music. Cool. If you don't find it here, you don't need it. We made it through two buildings and my dogs were barking and Don's back was hollerin'. DN Tammy, our next stop made me think of you. A Starbucks and a Trader Joe's side by side. Inside Trader Joe's were these two precious little girls helping their mommy shop. I couldn't resist. Yes, I take my camera everywhere I go. See, I would have missed this picture without it. btw... after gushing over these little beauties, I said to the mom, "can you tell I miss my grandkids? She also had a big-eyed toddler in her cart. Trader Joe's is now one of my favorites. Around 4:00 p.m., we found ourselves at another favorite, Pei-Wei's in Gilbert. Lettuce wraps and edamame here I come. And some things never change. Where's my Tide stick? Or the giant bib Don wanted to buy me at the Mesa Market. Back in the Clydesdale and homeward bound. Back seat buddies... or backseat GPS's. Who, us? Well, maybe Nancy.

Thursday already, Jan. 3, 2008

For breakfast I had a tasty grapefruit straight from a tree right here in the park. Love that about the valley here... fruit trees everywhere.Don and I got out this morning to walk around. Needed some fresh air. We met Tom & Sharon Peterson riding their bikes. Tom informed us that today is Sharon's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARON!! You sure look good for a SS aged lady. Congratulations! Enjoy your earnings. We enjoyed visiting with Tom & Sharon from Oregon and look forward to spending more time with them. They own horses back home and have served the Lord with Campus Crusade for Christ. Afterwards, we drove into Casa Grande for a Whataburger meal. On the way back, we were curious about an addition at the base of the mountains (that keep us from receiving AT&T cell phone service). The houses were very pretty with 3-5 bedrooms, 3-car garages on 1/2 - 1 acre lots with white rail fences. The mountain backdrop is very pretty in a southwestern kind of way. While driving around I spotted a QUAIL... and then more, but couldn't get close enough to them to photograph. The quail here are Gambrel quail with the little top-knot on their heads. The weather today was pleasant with slightly overcast skies. Notice the freshly plowed field in this pic. When we got home, Darlene & Donna were sitting out visiting, so I joined them. We love the open attitude of RV'ers... everyone's welcome everywhere. We are all here to meet and make new friends and we have met and made some wonderful ones. OK, this is the last pic of Darlene that I will post for awhile. :-) However, I'm sure that her family loves seeing her picture, so I will post just this one.... she's so cute. If I catch her picking her nose or something embarrassing, I will make an exception and post that for sure.

Family note: Mama Trudy (my mom) seems to have a cold/congestion with a slight fever. Please prayer for her to get well quickly.

Don worked hard watching KU beat VA Tech tonight so he's "upstairs" already. John & Karin, I hope watching VA Tech wasn't as painful for you as watching OU last night was for us. At least VA Tech showed up.

We're all going on and olive farm tour tomorrow, so off to bed I go.

two things i have to say...

...about last night:

1. Count it ALL joy and,

2. Sic'em BEARS!!!!

As promised, the Christmas Miracle story

This Christmas miracle story is written by Frank Maguire, an accomplished and published writer. He's has also been serving as our worship leader. You will be blessed by this story. Because of the length of this story, I have linked it here. Just click on this paragraph and you will be taken to Frank's account.

A letter from CRM General Director

We received today a letter from CRM Director, Dennis Maloney. It's a wonderful insight into our heart and vision so we wanted to share it with you: (click here)

It's 2008!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! EVERYONE!!

Neighbors and good friends, Dave & Darlene, sent us this Happy New Year greeting.

It's so cute we wanted to share it with everyone.

(click on the "Happy New Year")

I will probably be adding to this post throughout the day as we watch the bowl games. So, yeah Vols! over Wisconsin. Missouri is beating Arkansas (you ok, Don, Terri & boys?). Texas Tech just completed a successful onside kick. Don's having a ball with the remote.

Don has already made our black-eyed peas in the form of Mama Trudy's delicious black-eyed pea salad. I will make my favorite Cabbage Skillet dish to go with the salad. Yummmm.

The Santa Anna winds are blowing across Arizona today. Really windy here.

While Don watches football (takes a nap; he's had a good snack of cheese, olives & crackers; I would take his picture, but I value my marriage too much :-)), I'm going to share a few very interesting pics with you that Darlene took last week. These were taken on the way to/from the Saguaro (pronounced Sa-Wah-Row) Forest National Park and in the forest. A rock balanced on the side of a mountain. Looks like a good gust of these Santa Anna winds would send it rolling through the forest. Oh Look! Mickey Mouse got dressed up to visit the cactus forest! Isn't he cute? Interesting formation of arms. The Saguaro is 75 years old before the growth of appendages begins. Rock formations are just fascinating. A beautiful view of the Saguaro Forest. A view from the ground of a young cactii surely about ready to grow an arm or two. They weigh tons because of the amount of water stored inside. More desert forest flora. (Yeah! Noble Oklahoma f/ball player, Colby Whitlock, just recovered a VA fumble at the goal line and Texas Tech made a TD next play, game tied. Go Big 12! uh oh, Tech player down--team mates are praying.) Away from the forest are the crops of the desert. Jonny, just look at this cotton ready to be stripped. Pretty maize (I think) field almost ready for harvesting.

Thanks, Darlene, for sharing these pictures with us.

Yeah Big 12! 4 - 2 in the Bowl contests! (You have no idea how hard it was for me to cheer for the Red Raiders.. no idea.) Tomorrow is the Fiesta Bowl. Boomer Sooners! OU is here in Arizona with us, but we will watch the game on TV, just like you.

Dinner was yummy. Kitchen is clean. It's very true, the less cabinet space you have, the less time it takes to clean it. WaaLaa.

As I look forward to this year of 2008, here is a New Year's prayer I found that speaks my heart and I prayer it speaks yours as well.

As I sign off, I am excitedly expecting to receive pictures of my beautiful eldest grand-daughter in the next few days. She turns 10 in a few days. I can hardly believe it. I love and miss you, Lydia.